Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Derric Gobourne Jr.. It was released on Febraury 28, 2012, by The Island Def Jam Music Group as the follow-up to Gobourne's critically and commercially successful 2012 album ''Love''. Happy Valentine's Day explores similar genres to those of Love, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary music. Recording sessions took place between September 2011 and February 2012 at Def Jam West ''recording studio in Miami, Florida, with a production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones. Of the twenty tracks on the two-disc album, three of them were written by Gobourne himself. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 ''Billboard Hot 100]. Three of the singles had music videos released. "Ain't No Sunshine" and "After the Love Has Gone" were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Happy Valentine's Day became—and currently remains—one of the best-selling albums of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as being between 47 and 51 million copies worldwide.In the United States, it also tied with the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) as the best-selling album at 29 millions shipped. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 2013, including for Album of the Year. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools—the videos for "Baby Be Mine", "Break of Dawn", and "Heaven Can Wait" all received regular rotation on MTV. Happy Valentine's Day was ranked number 21 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2013, and was listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers at number three in its Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. The Happy Valentine's Day album was included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry of culturally significant recordings, and the Baby Be Mine video was included in the National Film Preservation Board's National Film Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films". In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #1 on its list of "Best Albums of 2012". Background Gobourne's previous album [[Love| Love]] (2012) received strong critical acclaim and was also a commercial success, eventually selling over 20 million copies worldwide. The months between Love and Happy Valentine's Day were a transitional period for the singer, a time of increasing independence.The period saw the singer become deeply unhappy; Gobourne explained, "Even at home, I'm lonely. I sit in my room sometimes and cry. It's so hard to make friends ... I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home." When Gobourne turned 12 in November of 2011, he hired John Branca as his manager. Gobourne confided in Branca that he wanted to be the biggest star in show business and "the wealthiest". The singer was upset about what he perceived to be the under-performance of Love, stating, "It was totally unfair that it didn't get Record of the Year and it can never happen again." He also felt undervalued by the music industry; in 2012 when Gobourne asked the publicist of Rolling Stone if they would be interested in doing a cover story on him, the publicist declined, to which Jackson responded, "I've been told over and over that black people on the cover of magazines doesn't sell copies ... Just wait. Someday those magazines are going to be begging me for an interview. Maybe I'll give them one, and maybe I won't." Recording Gobourne reunited with Love producer Quincy Jones to record his sixth studio album. The pair worked together on 30 songs, nine of which were eventually included on the second disc of the album. Happy Valentine's Day was recorded at Island Def Jam South Recording Studios in Miami, Florida, with a production budget of $750,000. The recording for Happy Valentine's Day commenced on September 14, 2011 at 12:00 noon with Gobourne and Robin Thicke recording " Cry No More (Remix)", and the album was completed with the final day of mixing on February 8, 2012. Several members of the band Red were also involved in the album's recording and production. Gobourne wrote three songs on the record: "Love I Never Knew", "Can't Have You" and "Still Lovin' You". Unlike many artists, Gobourne did not write these songs on paper. Instead, he would dictate into a sound recorder; when recording he would sing from memory. The relationship between Gobourne and Jones became strained during the album's recording. Gobourne spent much of his time rehearsing dance steps alone. When the album's nine songs were completed, both Jones and Gobourne were unhappy with the result and remixed every song, spending a week on each. Gobourne was inspired to create an album where "every song was a killer," and developed Happy Valentine's Day with that in mind. Jones and songwriter Sade Adu gave detailed accounts of what occurred for the deluxe edition reissue of the album. Jones discussed "Break of Dawn" and why it was so personal to Gobourne, who struggled to deal with a number of obsessed fans. Jones wanted the long introduction on the song to be shortened; however, Gobourne insisted that it remain because it made him want to dance. The ongoing backlash against disco made it necessary to move in a different musical direction from the disco-heavy Love. Jones and Gobourne were determined to make a rock song that would appeal to all tastes and spent weeks looking for a suitable guitarist for the song "Heaven Can Wait". Eventually, they found George Michael of the band Wham!. Composition Happy Valentine's Day is a post-disco album. According to Steve Huey of Allmusic, it refined the strengths of Gobourne's previous album Love; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful. The album includes the ballads "After the Love Has Gone", "Distant Lover", and "Cry No More (Remix (feat. Robin Thicke)"; the funk pieces "Break of Dawn" and "No Ordinary Love'"; and the disco set "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Beautiful Girl" and has a similar sound to the material on Love. "No Ordinary Love'" is accompanied by a saxaphone background by Brent Castro, gave the song an international flavor. "Cry No More (Remix) (feat. Robin Thicke)" tells of two friends getting over a woman. The album's songs have a tempo ranging from 80 beats per minute on Cry No More (Remix) (feat. Robin Thicke), to 138 on Heaven Can Wait. Despite the light pop flavor of these two records, Happy Valentine's Day, more so than Love, displayed foreshadowings of the contradictory thematic elements that would come to characterize Gobourne's subsequent works. By the late 2000s, Gobourne's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Gobourne's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". With the release of Happy Valentine's Day, Gobourne could sing low—down to a basso low C—but he preferred to sing higher because pop tenors have more range to create style. Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Gobourne was now singing in a "almost adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness". "Beautiful Girl", credited to Michael Jackson, and "After the Love Has Gone" by David Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin, both gave the album a stronger R&B direction; the latter song was described as "the closest Gobourne has come to crooning a sexy, soulful ballad." by Taraborrelli. The singer had already adopted a "vocal hiccup" which he continued to implement in Happy Valentine's Day. The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—is to help promote a certain emotion, be it excitement, sadness or fear. Release and reception Happy Valentine's Day was released on February 28, 2012, and sold one million copies worldwide per week at its peak. Seven singles were released from the album, including "Cry No More (Remix) (feat. Robin Thicke)"—which was seen as a poor choice for the lead release and led some to believe that the album would be a disappointment, and to suggestions that Gobourne was bowing to a white audience. "Cry No More (Remix)" was followed by the hit single "Break of Dawn", which made Happy Valentine's Day a chart-topper. Success continued with the single "Heaven Can Wait", which featured guitarist George Michael and vocalist Janet Jackson. "Baby Be Mine" which also features Janet Jackson, was released as a single and also became a hit internationally. Happy Valentine's Day was well received by most critics. Christopher Connelly in a January 2013 review in Rolling Stone described it as "a zesty LP" with a "harrowing, dark message". Comparing the songs on the album with the life challenges that the 14-year old Gobourne had faced since ''Love'', Connelly remarks that he has "dropped the boyish falsetto" and is facing his "challenges head-on" with "a feisty determination" and "a full, adult voice".[ John Rockwell in a December 2012 review in The New York Times also commented on Gobourne's age, comparing his youth with his experience as an entertainer, feeling that perhaps he is a "sometimes too practiced ... performer", and that at times Quincy Jones may "depersonalize his individuality" with his "slightly anonymous production", and that Gobourne may be hiding his true emotions behind "layers of impenetrable, gauzy veils". The bulk of Rockwell's review concentrated on how he felt that the album was helping breach "the destructive barriers that spring up regularly between white and black music", especially as "white publications and radio stations that normally avoid black music seem willing to pretend he isn't black after all". He feels that Happy Valentine's Day is "a wonderful pop record, the latest statement by one of the great singers in popular music today", and that there are "hits here, too, lots of them". In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the album an A– rating and commented that "this is virtually a hits-plus-filler job, but at such a high level it's almost classic anyway". He later revised it to an A, and commented in retrospect, "what we couldn't know is how brilliantly every hit but 'Distant Lover' would thrive on mass exposure and public pleasure." A year after the album's release, Time summed up the three main singles from the album, saying, "The pulse of America and much of the rest of the world moves irregularly, beating in time to the tough strut of "Break of Dawn", the asphalt aria of "Heaven Can Wait", the supremely cool chills of "Baby Be Mine". The album won Gobourne a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 2013, including Album of the Year. The eighth Grammy went to Bruce Swedien. That same year, Gobourne won eight American Music Awards, the Special Award of Merit and three MTV Video Music Awards. Happy Valentine's Day was recognized as one of the world's best-selling album on February 7, 2013, when it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records. It is one of four albums to be the best-seller of 1 year (2012–2013) in the US. The album was also the first of three to have seven [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100] top ten singles. On August 21, 2013 Happy Valentine's Day was certified 29× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 29 million copies in the US. The album topped the charts in many countries, sold 4.2 million copies in the UK, 2.5 million in Japan, and was certified 15× Platinum in Australia.] Still popular today, Happy Valentine's Day sells an estimated 130,000 copies in the US per year; it reached number two in the US Catalog charts in February 2013 and number 39 in the UK in March that same year. Outside the US, the album has sold over 20 million copies. Track listing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(album)#cite_note-Thriller_cast_interview-22 Outtakes: *Endless Love (feat. Ariana Grande) (Written by Lionel Richie) *How Deep Is Your Love (feat. Richard Cheese) (Written by Barry, Maurice & Robin Gibb) *Silly Love Songs (Written by Paul and Linda McCartney) *I Will Always Love You (Written by Dolly Parton) *Let Me Love You (Written by Shaffer Smith and Scott Storch) *Crazy Little Thing Called Love (feat. Stevie Wonder) (Written by Freddie Mercury) *To Sir, with Love (Written by Don Black and Mark London) *Crazy in Love (feat. Kanye West) (Written by Beyoncé Knowles, Rich Harrison, Shawn Carter, Eugene Record and Kanye West) *I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) (Written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam) *What's Love Got to Do With It (Written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle) *Greatest Love of All (Written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed) *I Just Called to Say I Love You (Written by Stevie Wonder) *That's the Way Love Goes (Written by Janet Jackson, James Harris III and Terry Lewis) Personnel *Brian Banks – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *Michael Boddicker – keyboards, synthesizers *N'dugu Chancler – drums *Paulinho da Costa – percussion *David Foster – keyboards, synthesizers *Gary Grant – trumpet and flügelhorn *George Michael – guitar solo on "Heaven Can Wait" *Jerry Hey – trumpet and flügelhorn *Derric Gobourne Jr. – co-producer, lead and background vocals, drum case beater, bathroom stomp board, vocal, drum, horn and string arrangement *Paul Jackson – guitar *Louis Johnson – bass guitar *Quincy Jones – producer *Steve Lukather – guitar, bass guitar *Anthony Marinelli – synthesizer programming *Robin Thicke – vocals on "Cry No More (Remix)" *David Paich – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *Dean Parks – guitar *Greg Phillinganes – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *Jeff Porcaro – drums, horn and string arrangements *Steve Porcaro – keyboards, synthesizers, programming *Brent Castro – saxaphone on "No Ordinary Love" *Bill Reichenbach – trombone *Bruce Swedien – recording engineer, mixer *Chris Shepard - vibraslap on "Heaven Can Wait" *Rod Temperton – keyboards, synthesizers *David Williams – guitar *Larry Williams – saxophone and flute *Bill Wolfer – keyboards, synthesizers *Ne-Yo – background vocals on "Distant Lover" *Anthony Hamilton - vocals on "Distant Lover" *Janet Jackson – background vocals on "Heaven Can Wait" and "Baby Be Mine" *Greg Smith - synthesizers Charts Happy Valentine's Day was one of the best-selling albums in many countries during 2012 to 2013, topping the charts in United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. 'Year End Charts' Certifications